Divine Victory for Whom? Airpower in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War

Abstract

Air warfare is inherently a difficult to imagine activity, and images of urban devastation, carpet bombing, and mass civilian casualties dominate public discourse. With the emergence of 24/7 television and the Internet in the 1990s--a period that also coincided with the maturation of precision weapons and airpower as the dominant component of strategic warfare--the challenge of "seeing" airpower ironically magnified even more. Air warfare "statistics" and gun camera video accumulated, but they communicated video game heartlessness and suggested perfection while emphasizing the almost industrial nature of the air warfare enterprise (Airmen even spoke of the "production" of sorties). Habitual operational security and the sensitivity of operating from foreign bases, together with the internal challenges of jointness, further constrained the telling of the airpower story.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2007
Accession Number
ADA509931

Entities

People

  • William M. Arkin

Organizations

  • Air University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Counter IED
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerial Warfare
  • Air Force
  • Air Power
  • Anti-Tank Missiles
  • Combat Areas
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Governments
  • Military Operations
  • Military Organizations
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Projectiles
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • United States
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Educational Psychology
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.